MILAN (Reuters) – Italy will get an additional 2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas from Algeria each year at the same price it is now paying, the Algerian ambassador to Italy was quoted as saying on Friday.
Algeria’s gas exports to Italy last year jumped 76% to 21 bcm to account for 28% of Italy’s overall consumption, second only to the 29 bcm supplied by Russia.
“Italy will be able to count on additional supplies of Algerian gas at the same price to reach, and perhaps exceed, 30 billion cubic metres already in the next few months,” Abdelkrim Touahria told newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Italy’s foreign minister said on Monday a visit to Algeria to seek an increase in gas supplies from the country had yielded good results, as Europe steps up its efforts to tap alternative supply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Italy’s plan to bump up gas imports via southern routes to reduce its energy dependence on Russia will take time and money to achieve and is likely to come at a cost to Italian households and businesses.
The Transmed pipeline, which now transports around 60 million cubic metres (mcm) of Algerian gas to Italy per day, has a potential daily capacity of more than 110 mcm.
The additional gas from Algeria “could, if not completely eliminate, at least considerably reduce the effects of the Ukrainian crisis and sanctions against Russia on the Italian energy supply system,” the ambassador added.
(Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia; editing by Jason Neely)
